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Types Of Printers And Printing Tips
What is a printer?
A printer is a peripheral device, which is attached to the computer to produce written material or graphics on paper or other print material. When you write a word document you send input and when you take a printout of this document via the printer you get a hard copy output.
Types of printers
Printers are made by using different technologies and are therefore classified into two main categories, which are as follows:
Dot matrix printersThese printers consist of print head, pins and ribbon. As the head moves across the paper, pins hit the ribbon to insert ink on paper to create text.Characters printer You cannot print graphics by these printers. Just like the typewriter, it consists of alphabets or characters. Each character strikes the ribbon to insert a character on the paper.Ink jet printersThis type of printer is popular among home PC users because of high quality, less expensive and photo quality output copy. It consists of inkjet print cartridges or ink boxes. Your colour ink jet printer needs two ink jet cartridges one black and other tri or four colour to produce a colour print copy. Ink from the nozzle in the form of tiny droplets is used to create text and images on the paper.Laser printersThese printers give high speed and high quality output by using laser technology. It consists of electrostatic charge, rotating drum, laser beam and toner.
What to do to create a perfect print?
After setting up the printer your first task is to know how to create a perfect document. As you know from the printer you can print word documents, greeting cards and envelopes, etc. Print icon is always seen on the tool bar of the program file. But before you click it remember that you must setup the page size and some other details because without completing these formalities you cannot print a document.
Here are few points that you should keep in mind before you start printing.
Click on page setup
Go to the file menu option and click "Page setup". Now click the "page size" tab and if you want to print an envelope select envelop from the paper size list box. On the right side "preview" of your selection helps you to take the finale decision.
Set the orientation
At the bottom of the page size tab, two options for page orientation are given. This option gives you opportunity to print the text or image in portrait (like sheet of your journal) or landscape (like a prepaid internet card) style.
Types of printing paper
It is very important to the choose right kind of printing paper because if you try to make a print of a photograph on a plain sheet of paper you are bound to get poor quality prints.
To print a photograph you need shiny glossy paper. For double-sided printing thick paper is used so that the text or image of one side of the paper cannot appear on the other side.
Maintaining your printer
To get flawless and good quality prints it is necessary that your printer should be in first-class condition. Following are few tips to keep your printer in good condition.
- Keep away dust and smudge from your printer.
- Never try to clean the inside of the printer with a wet cloth.
- To clean colour cartridges, select your printer and right click to open-up the short cut menu. Select properties and then select the services tab. Now click "clean the print cartridges" button.
- You can get more information about your printer from the user guide.
